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Dear Ed, it’s been really exciting seeing your blog. I don’t think we’ve met since a gathering in Leicester. I’ve been working with Howard Stevenson coordinating research support for the NUT’s Stand Up For Education campaign, and would very much like to re-post some of these. I’m also keen to hear more about the Bac from below.

Fascinated to get your perspective on executive pay, Eddie. There has been some discussion of this on my blog (which relates to further education [FE]),
The argument within FE is that very high executive salaries are necessary (200K +), because only with very high salaries can we attract people who have the same characteristics as business-minded people.
I’m highly sceptical about this argument. I think there are many FE professionals who would happily take much lower salaries (let’s say double the top salary of their most experienced teaching colleagues – £60K) to take leadership positions within the sector. I think people in FE would value leadership positions because they have a political commitment to what the sector does, rather than to feather their own nests?

Thanks for your comment. These are decisions for each college corporation to make but £200K per year does seem very high for a college principal. In general I think that colleges need good educators as well as good managers to lead them. It’s not an easy job these days but on the whole I think that collegiality and shared leadership is a more effective approach than the ‘heroic’ model.